


Just Tell Him

by UnfortunatelyObsessed



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Angst, Dark, Friends With Benefits, M/M, Sam confronts Cas, Sam confronts Dean, Truth Spells, someone plz stop me
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-15
Updated: 2018-03-21
Packaged: 2019-03-31 13:09:21
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 4
Words: 2,591
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13975800
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/UnfortunatelyObsessed/pseuds/UnfortunatelyObsessed
Summary: Sam finally confronts Cas about all the sexual tension, only to learn Cas and Dean are handling it on their own.





	1. I've Got Another Confession To Make

Sam had seen just a few too many long, lingering stares between the angel and his brother.

A few too many inches close to each other.

A few too many words left unsaid.

Quite frankly, he was sick of it.

So, when Cas walked into the room where he was researching, he closed his laptop with a quick snap. "Cas!"

Cas turned to look at Sam. "Yes?"

"Let's talk." Sam motioned to the seat across from him as he put his laptop away.

Cas took the proffered seat and looked at Sam curiously.

"You need to have sex with Dean."

"Right...now? Don't humans need a recovery period?"

"Whenever. It's obvious you two- wait, what?"

"Dean and I just had intercourse fifteen minutes ago. I... need to go back?"

Sam felt a grin slide across his lips. "Are you two together already?"

"Oh, no. We are, as you say, 'friends with benefits'," Cas replied, making air quotes.

And dammit if Sam knew Dean's words coming out of someone else's mouth.

"Uh-huh. Okay. Forget I said anything."

Castiel nodded and went off to do Chuck-knows-what.

It was a few hours before Sam caught Dean on his own, but when he did, he was pissed.

"What the fuck, Dean?!" Sam began, hands thrown into the air.

"Gonna have to be a little more specific there, tiger."

"You and Cas?! Friends with benefits?!"

Dean flinched. "Oh, damn. You know about that, huh?"

"Yes, I do. You know that's not okay!"

Dean sighed, leaning against the wall. "I know, I just... You wouldn't understand..."

"How could you use Cas like that man? I know you're a womanizer but this is your best friend!"

Dean stilled, something in his eyes turning dark. "Then what do you suggest I do?"

"Tell him you love him, for starters. It's so obvious, Dean. And he loves you, too. I know he does."

"Okay. Sure. I'll give that a try. Now fuck off." Dean stormed out of the room and Sam let out a breath he hadn't realized he was holding. At this point, he could only pray for the best.

~~~

Cas and Dean both collapsed, red-faced and breathing hard, clothes scattered all across the floor. Dean glanced over at Cas, his gorgeous blue eyes reflecting the moon's light.

"I love you, Castiel," Dean whispered softly.

Cas sighed. "Dean, we talked about this."

"You say that every time," Dean whispered back, his mouth trying and failing at an amused smile.

"You tell me you love me every time."

"I'll quit when it's not true."

"Dean-" Cas began.

"I'm sorry."

Cas looked over at Dean, sighed, and turned away from him. "Just don't do it again."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry


	2. Dream A Little Dream Of Me

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Y'all asked, I provided.
> 
> Heh. Be careful what you wish for.

Dean woke up to see Cas in the bed beside him. They smiled at each other. Cas gave his nose a gentle kiss and Dean leaned up to meet his lips. The day was soft and warm, and neither was in any rush to get out of bed. Dean loved mornings like this, where he could just worship Castiel with his lazy kisses. Dean gently played with the feathers on Cas's wings.

He didn't know why, but Cas always had wings in his dreams.

Castiel laid one wing over Dean like a blanket and broke their kiss. "Good morning," he whispered softly.

Dean smiled. "Good morning."

"Welcome to Hard Rock 100.5."

Dean felt the sloshy rush of waking up and shoved out a hand to turn off the instrusive radio. He sighed. The morning was slightly chilly, very damp, and smelled like stale cigarettes. He was alone in his bed. Again.

After a quick, lukewarm shower, Dean fixed crappy coffee and sat beside Sam.

"Any news on the coven?" Dean grunted, sipping his coffee and missing the Bunker.

"Kinda? I have a few leads on where they might be. Figured we could go check them out today."

"Find 'em today, gank 'em tonight, home by tomorrow. I like it."

"Yeah. Should be a simple hunt. Shouldn't take more than an hour, max."

Dean downed the rest of his coffee, biting back a grimace. "Then let's hit the road."

It took hours of stakeouts and interviews to determine the coven's main haunt, but they eventually narrowed it down to either a warehouse out by the abandoned wharf or a kindergarten classroom.

"So, what? Three witches?" Dean asked. He and Sam stood outside a closed thrift store. It was late. Close to midnight.

"Yeah. What are you thinking we do?"

"Each take one place. I think we can both handle this. They're amateurs anyways, right? Some school teachers who got into the wrong kinds of broomsticks?"

"I dunno, Dean. Are you sure? You've seemed kinda... off, lately."

"I'm fine. Look, I'll take the classroom. You take the warehouse. Deal?"

Sam gazed at Dean for a moment, sizing him up, before sighing and agreeing.

Dean waited patiently inside a supply closet in the classroom, gazing out through slits in the door. It wasn't long before the lights flicked on and three women strode into the room, quickly lighting a few candles and setting up an impromptu altar. Dean reached silently for his gun before freezing in his tracks.

"Oh no, we can't have any of THOSE disgusting inventions in here, can we, sisters?"

A chorus of no's rang out as the door Dean hid behind swung open violently. He tried to struggle, but not even his greatest attempts made the slightest twitch. He was frozen in place.

One of the women - a blonde in a black gown - strode over and held Dean's face in one hand. "And by those inventions, I mean men." She dug her pointy nails into his cheeks. "What a wonderful specimen, though. A real fighter, I assume." She relaxed her grip and turned to look at her sisters. "What do you say, girls? Who wants to break him?"

A caramel girl with jet black hair raised her hand up high. "I do! I've been wanting to practice torture for a while now!"

"Very well, Annie." The blonde turned back to Dean and closed her eyes. He felt a weird energy pulse through him and suddenly wanted to throw up. He was pulled and pushed into a chair, where, finally, he was granted control of his own head.

"What the fuck did you just do to me?" Dean growled at them.

"Truth spell, love. How are we supposed to get better if we don't know what you're feeling?"

Without warning, Annie jammed a knife into his stomach. "How does that feel?"

Dean bit his cheek in an effort to remain silent, but the words still slipped past his lips. "White hot. Numb."

Annie gave a sharp twist. "And that?"

Dean sucked in air and grunted. "B-bubbling... in places where there sh-... where there shouldn't be bubbling."

The blonde placed a hand on Annie's shoulder, evil dancing across her lips. "This will be fun."


	3. Maybe You're Gonna Be The One That Saves Me

Dean was Most Definitely Not Okay.

Sam knew that for sure.

He had tried calling him, and he hadn't picked up. Which was weird in itself. Then the witches never showed up to the warehouse. Strike two. Strike three was the pounding in his heart that he could really only describe as gut instinct. Still, Sam took his rental car back to the hotel to be sure Dean hadn't just gotten back already and was busy showering or something.

He saw the Impala parked outside their room. Under normal circumstances, this would be good news, but seeing it made Sam's stomach twist.

He parked his car and ran over to Baby, not surprised to see Dean in it. Very surprised to see him sporting gaping wounds and bleeding out fast.

He wrenched open the door and dragged Dean out. Damn, Baby's seats were red with Dean's blood. He would be so mad about that later. They looked kinda hazy. Actually, everything did. All Sam could really think was that he didn't have enough Band-Aids for this. And that maybe he should do something productive. But what? Maybe he should call Cas. Cas would know what to do.

Sam used his phone to call Cas, unaware to the slowing of his heartbeat. He picked up on the first ring.

"Sam?"

"Hey, Cas. I need your help."

"What's the problem?"

Sam frowned. Fuck. What was the problem? "Well, Baby's seats are stained." He glanced slowly at Dean. "And I think Dean's intestines are the wrong color."

Cas appeared in front of him immediately, looking like all the blood had left his body.

"Oh, hey Cas. I guess I can hang up now."

Cas shoved his hand against Sam's forehead and the haze all cleared. Sam was on his feet and yelling in milliseconds. "Oh god oh fuck Cas fix him what happened shit fuck-"

"Shock happened to you. I don't know what happened to Dean." Cas leaned down and placed a hand to Dean's forehead.

Nothing happened.

"What..." Cas tried again, panic rising.

"What were you hunting?!" Cas demanded, face angry and eyes terrified.

"Witches! A small coven of inexperienced witches!"

"Kill them. Go. Now. The wounds are regenerating an infinite number of times each second. I can't heal him. I don't have that power."

Sam nodded, sliding into Baby and roaring off as fast as he could go.

Cas crouched down beside Dean. "Dean, stay with me. Tell me what happened." Cas avoided looking at his internal organs. It wasn't like he hadn't seen them before, they had just been... ya know... internal.

Dean made some sort of gurgling sound. He coughed and tried again. "Damn witches."

"At least they left your mouth functioning."

"They put a truth spell on me. So I could tell them what being gutted feels like."

Cas winced in sympathy. Dean's eyes began to close. "Hey! Stay with me. Tell me what you feel. Tell me how to make it better."

"I've felt worse," Dean mumbled, obviously struggling to hold his eyes open.

"I don't think you have, Dean."

"I have." Dean took a deep breath and forced his eyes open.

"Then tell me about that?" God, anything to keep him awake.

Dean frowned. "Like my chest was constricting. And pushing everything all down into one little point inside me. And my head felt dizzy and my breathing was funny. And I wanted to scream and cry so I could let it all out."

"But you didn't?"

"Not that guy."

"Keep going."

"Like the point was shoved into my actual beating heart and was ripping it apart fiber by fiber. And it burned. White hot."

"Don't fall asleep on me."

"Can't help it."

"What about the rest of your body? Was it just in your chest?"

"My hands felt like they'd shake if I'd let them."

"So your heart felt like it was being slowly ripped apart, and your whole body was shaking and you wanted to scream?"

"Basically."

"That sounds terrible. I'm sorry you had to endure that."

"Thanks for the apology."

"If you don't mind my asking, what exactly happened?"

Dean moved his head to look into Cas's eyes, exposing a few more bruises he hadn't seen before. A small smile was on Dean's lips, one Cas knew well. It was the 'I love you' smile.

"Come on, Dean. Focus. What monster ripped your heart to shreds?"

"You. Every time you look at me."

The silence was deafening.


	4. Addicted To You

Dean was okay.

No, really.

Sam killed the witches, Cas healed him, and then promptly knocked him out. Cas needed to think.

What was he even supposed to think?

That, even now as he watched the peaceful rise and fall of a chest that mere hours ago was wide open, Dean was truly in love with him.

And that, truthfully, the worst pain Dean had ever experienced wasn't having his intestines dragged out.

It was looking at Cas.

Sam wasn't much better than the angel. He was staring at his brother, dark circles under his eyes. He looked for all the world like he had just challenged Death to a staring contest and lost.

"Sam?" Cas began hesitantly.

Sam rubbed his eyes and flicked his gaze over to him. "Mm?"

"Can I ask you for advice?"

"I guess."

"Dean was under a truth spell. And he said that the worst pain he's ever felt is... is looking at me."

Sam shrugged. "He loves you."

"I know, but how can that be the worst? As he's literally lying in his own insides?"

Sam's expression took a few moments to react, but once it did, Castiel felt a little like cowering. "So it was you, then, that wanted to just be sex buddies."

"I... Yes. It was me."

"Fuck you."

"Excuse me?"

"Dean never has romantic feelings about people. And he definitely never tells them he loves them. You're really goddamn special and you just can't get your head far enough out of your ass to see that you care about him, too."

Cas looked away from Sam, gazing instead at Dean again. "I think I'm going to go talk to him."

"Good. Fix this."

~~~

Dean laid on his side, gazing fondly at Castiel. Neither said a word.

"I have wings," a voice behind Dean said.

He didn't seem surprised. "You always do in my dreams."

The real Castiel rounded the bed and waved the dream him out of existence before taking his place. "I owe you an apology."

"About the witches? You couldn't have known. It's not a big deal."

"About us."

Dean paused. "What about us?"

Castiel sighed and gently pulled Dean against him. Dean stiffened and Cas internally winced. "I don't want this to hurt," Cas whispered. "Why does this hurt so much?"

"Does it hurt you, too?"

"Yes."

"It hurts because we're pretending it's all okay like this but... but it's not. This isn't okay."

"We can't keep doing this, can we?"

Dean laughed softly. "I can't decide which hurts worse: pretending to have you, or not having you at all."

"You really love me, huh?"

"Always have."

"Why?"

"Really? You're a badass warrior of heaven that gave up everything for me and has always been my best friend. I find solace in just being near you. It hurts. And it heals. And I keep coming back."

"You're addicted."

Dean was silent a moment. "I can't give you up."

"It's okay. I don't think I could give you up, either. It's funny, I guess. I didn't want you to love me, but I also didn't want anyone else to have you."

"Why didn't you want me to love you?"

"I didn't want to watch you grow old and die."

"So you were just gonna duck out once I reached fifty?"

"No, not necessarily, I just..." Cas sighed. "How terrible it is to love something death can touch."

"So it wasn't that you didn't want me falling in love with you. You didn't want to fall in love with me."

Cas tightened his arms around Dean. Everything was warm. "I think I failed."

"Where do we go from here?" Dean risked a small kiss on Cas's jaw.

Cas closed his eyes. "Things still hurt."

"I think they always will."

"We can't pretend everything's okay."

"We won't have to."

"I want to have you."

"I've always been yours."

"You scared me today." Cas closed his eyes tightly, fighting back tears he wasn't aware existed.

"I'm sorry."

"Never again," he whispered.

"I'll do my best."

They laid like that for a while.

"I love you, Dean Winchester."

Dean let out a shuddering breath. "I love you, too, Castiel."

**Author's Note:**

> Sorry not sorry


End file.
